ROCKFORD — As workers at Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary arrive at work each morning, it’s common for them to find a box with kittens or puppies sitting at the front door.

It’s part of the life at a no-kill shelter, one of a handful in the Rockford area.

But as employees reported for their shift Thursday, they didn’t expect to see a fully grown, emaciated dog tied to the handle of the front door, 111 N. First St.

It was a shock.

Abandoned and hungry, the dog had no tags, microchip or note. Across the animal’s gaunt body, workers found bite marks and sores.

General manager Dena Gates classified the German shepherd mix as a Level 1 animal — in need of immediate medical attention. But that’s all that is known about its past. A name would be nice; using it tends to comfort the animal. Records would be good, but there were none of those, either.

Workers at Noah’s Ark are used to this, so they do their best to unravel the mystery through medical testing and temperament assessments.

“It will be weeks before we know how she will do,” Gates said. “Workers will feed her four times a day until she is out of the woods.”

Gates says abandonments like this one happen too often and create bigger problems for the small shelter. It has 13 cages for dogs and not many more than that for cats, so space is always an issue. Noah’s Ark receives no government funding. Gates calls it a true community organization, relying on adoption fees and generous animal lovers to pay the bills.

Tracking down the person or people who left the animal is virtually impossible, and it really doesn’t matter. It’s all about finding the dog a home with owners who will take responsibility and love the pet.

“We don’t have an animal problem, we have a people problem,” Gates said, with tears in her eyes.